I besought her to regard it as unsaid,
to forgive me, not to despise me too much, to take pity on poor
PERFECT papa and come back to him. She was more good-natured than
you might have expected--indeed she laughed extravagantly. She had
never believed me--it was too absurd; she had only, at the time,
disliked me. She found me utterly false--she was very frank with me
about this--and she told papa she really thought me horrid. She said
she could never live with such a girl, and as I would certainly never
marry I must be sent away--in short she quite loathed me. Papa
defended me, he refused to sacrifice me, and this led practically to
their rupture. Papa gave her up, as it were, for ME. Fancy the
angel, and fancy what I must try to be to him for the rest of his
life! Mrs. Churchley can never come back--she's going to marry Lord
Dovedale."
End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Marriages, by Henry James**
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